article by Nicola Pucci
John Bromwich’s name will forever be associated with that of Adrian Quist, his inseparable (or almost) doubles partner with whom he won 10 Grand Slam titles (there will be 13 in total, alongside Sedgman and Bill Sidwell) and a multitude of Davis Cup matches. But he was also an excellent singles playerand if it has a meager haul of events Major to be illustrated at the table of the tennis greats, it is probably because the war put a brake on his rise as a champion. In 1939, in fact, after his extraordinary victory in the Davis Cup against Frank Parker at Merion Cricket Club of Haverford, a 6-0 6-3 6-1 which gave Australia the comeback victory from 0-2, was ranked among the 5 best players in the world, and was only 21 years old…
Bromwich, Australian from Sydney born in 1918, he is one of the very rare ambidextrous players to have achieved success at the highest leveltogether with the Italian Giorgio De Stefani. Naturally left-handed, he had a formidable two-handed backhand, but served with his right hand! Tall, blond, very athletic, he had a winning personality, and he glared at the referees for a long time when he didn’t like the decisions. He didn’t go any further, because at the time arguing with a race judge was absolutely unthinkable. Another curious detail, he was the first to fill his pockets with spare balls, and to throw the second ball behind him when the first serve was good. From this point of view, Bromwich was ahead of its time, as most of the great pre-war players (Fred Perry for example) did not hesitate to serve with three balls in hand, or even four as Bill Tilden used to do !
Bromwich began his remarkable Davis Cup career at the age of 20, winning the doubles match with Quist against Don Budge and Gene Mako in Philadelphia in 1938, a success which however did not allow Australia to triumph, finally succumbing 3-2. But he was the hero of the victorious match the following year. John himself says that “in 1939, the Australian Tennis Association was too poor to send us to France and Wimbledon. On the other hand we were sure we could win the Davis Cup, because Budge had turned professional and we had lost by a narrow margin the year before. Three weeks by ship to California, then the train to Philadelphia. The day before the first match, war had been declared and there was a strange atmosphere on the pitch. We were surprised and we were 2-0 down. We didn’t have great morale, even after the double. But Quist played a fantastic match against Bobby Riggs, winning 6/4 in the fifth after missing a match point at 5-2! It was my turn to make the decisive point. Our coach, Harry Hopman, asked me never to play Parker’s forehand. So I did. The first point lasted two minutes, the first game 13, and so until the end I won 6-0 6-3 6-1!”.
Bromwich had a particularly brilliant second career after the war, triumphing in doubles on every court in the world with partners as diverse as Sedgman, Sidwell and of course Quist. After the Davis Cup defeat in 1946 against Kramer and Schroeder, he participated in all the editions until he regained the title.silver salad bowl” in 1950. That year, for his last Davis Cup match, he won the doubles and the Cup associated with Frank Sedgman, 6-4 in the fifth set against Mulloy and Schroeder.
Davis Cup and doubles, therefore, but Bromwich, in fact, is capable of great exploits in singles too. After being a finalist in 1937 and 1938, beaten respectively by Vivian McGrath, 6-3 1-6 6-0 2-6 6-1, and by Don Budge, 6-4 6-2 6-1, he finally triumphed in 1939 at the Australian Open, defeating his friend Adrian Quist with a severe 6-4 6-1 6-2 in the finaland then, defeated in the semifinals in 1940 by Jack Crawford, repeat the second half in 1946, 5-7 6-3 7-5 3-6 6-2 in the final against Dinny Pails, losing in the three years following the final act against the same Pails (which canceled out a match point) and Quist, again in five sets, and finally against Sedgman in 1949, 6-3 6-2 6-2.
And if at the US Open he boasts three semi-finals, beaten by Mako (1938), by carneade Welby Van Horn (8-6 in fifth in 1939) and by Parker (1947), and on the Parisian clay he reaches the quarter-finals in the only participation of 1950 (6-2 6-2 6-3 by William Talbert), the Wimbledon tournament will remain his great regret. After the third round of 1937, ousted by Bunny Austin, and absent in the following two years because the Australian team was not rich enough to make both the trip to Europe and the American Davis Cup campaign, he returned to play on the green lawns ofAll England Lawn Tennis and Crocket Club only in 1947 at the age of 29, losing in the round of 16 in five sets against Budge Patty.
1948 could have been the good year. Already winner of the men’s doubles, paired with Sedgman against Brown/Mulloy, and of the mixed doubles, paired with Louise Brough against Sedgman-Hart, he also reached the final in the singles competition, completing a clear path that saw him beat, among others, Patty in the quarterfinals and the Hungarian Jozsef Asboth in the semifinals. To the decisive act finds the other American Bob Falkenburg on the other side of the netseeded number 7, ed comes to lead 5-3 40-15 in the fifth set, but his arm trembles, he misses two chances (in the first he lets a ball pass judging it long), then a third and finally gives up, 7-5 0-6 6-2 3-6 7-5.
With Falkenburg himself he will take a platonic revenge the following year in the quarter-finals, again in five sets, but it will not be useful because then, in the semi-final, Jaroslav Drobny will prove to be too much stronger, 6-1 6-3 6-2. Shattering John Bromwich’s dream of proclaiming himself King of England.
And as a great double player that he was, it would have been the seal of a mouth-watering singles career.